In a world where the History Channel once showed PLANET OF THE APES (I am not kidding!), I suppose channels no longer stick to the remit that their names suggest.

But why did MTV stop playing music?

I checked the MTV schedule out for the first time in years. It was mainly reality shows and, well, not much else. There were some comedies and dramas on. I am not sure why the channel is still called MTV, to be honest. And I'm gonna guess that the decline in music videos began sometime between 2000 and 2004 (if anyone knows differently, please post details!).

MTV was launched in 1981. It showed music videos for a very, very long time, but a cursory glance of the schedules over the next 7 days shows reality, comedy, drama - but no music videos.

I wonder, did the likes of YouTube make MTV redundant? After all, one can go on YouTube and check out a music video at a time of your choosing. Many bands have official YouTube channels. And after a 30-second ad, you can view a song such as "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" on the official Tears For Fears page.

So that'd be my theory: the rise of the internet, and the popularity of YouTube, made MTV playing music videos redundant. Or did something else happen? I'm asking questions here, they are not rhetorical. Perhaps someone knows more than I do.

I will state this: I do miss the randomness of music videos on outlets such as MTV. I can choose to listen to a song online or via my iPod, but they are specific songs. It was quite nice back in the day having MTV on and not quite knowing what was to come. I remember switching it on during one day when I was at home working - and "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits came on, a song I remembered but had totally forgotten about.

Music videos played randomly via MTV seems quaint, but the randomness appealed to me more than me making conscious decisions to put a song on.

I agree with Doug. YouTube may have dealt the final blow, but music videos had already given way to endless reruns of THE REAL WORLD and ROAD RULES.

Also holy crap, THE REAL WORLD is more than 25 years old. I miss the first few seasons, where they actually tried to do a reality show about people from different walks of life trying to live together. Puck from the third San Francisco season introduced drama, and some of the subsequent seasons emphasized hook-ups, so by the time the Las Vegas season rolled around, the MTV reality show formula of “immature, attractive drama queens + alcohol + hook-ups = ratings” became a permanent fixture of the channel.

The company story (from random documentaries and interviews) is that they learned ratings increase when you have programming you can map in standard 30 or 60 minute increments. They tried some genre-specific video shows (Hard 30, Yo MTV Raps) but those were aimed at very specific niches in the audience so the numbers were usually pretty small watching them.

It basically boils down to advertising dollars and ways to get people to tune in at specific times for specific things.

It doesn't bother me so much with MTV because I've always thought it was basically a network for teenagers (and I'm old now) but it drives me batty that I can't turn on History or Discovery Channel and see a solid documentary because they're showing food shows and what not.

t doesn't bother me so much with MTV because I've always thought it was basically a network for teenagers (and I'm old now) but it drives me batty that I can't turn on History or Discovery Channel and see a solid documentary because they're showing food shows and what not.

I understand. Tuning into the History Channel to be "greeted" by PLANET OF THE APES was bizarre.

They definitely seemed more niche years ago. Now, the channels are all interchangeable.

There was a channel here in the UK called Bravo. It initially showed vintage TV shows like AIRWOLF. Eventually, it started showing cop documentaries (like every other channel).

Like others noted, "The Real World" seems to be the beginning of the end of MTV as we knew it. Other early causes were "Remote Control," and "Liquid Television," and "Beavis and Butthead."

Although I liked "Liquid Television," and "Beavis and Butthead," they were part of the shift away from music videos being the focus of the cable network (even if "Beavis and Butthead" did still feature music video segments).

It's a shame, because I enjoyed watching music videos. There were many creative things being done in some of them, too.

I know some artists still release music videos, but I am not quite sure where they debut, or if all major hit songs have a music video anymore.

I remember when we had VH1 as well,with actual live bands in the studio and `VJ`s`!MTV also had live presenters,and some programming that appealed to me Headbanger`s Ball!I really detest `Reality TV` as it`s usually scripted and always vacuous.Nowadays i listen to Planet Rock on the radio instead and will often spend a few hours on Youtube watching music videoes while my wife is watching `her` programmes!One big success was MTV unplugged,but here in the UK they only showed the `Mega` selling U.S. bands,i remember having to set the vide for something like 1am Sunday morning to record Queensryche unplugged,which was excellent,it irked me that by not showing it at a decent time, they prevented people from discovering a great band.

I only ever used to watch MTV in the gym, so the evolution of that specific channel away from music videos doesn't bother me too much, directly at least. The decline of the video in general is an interesting phenomenon though, because nobody regularly shows videos anymore (well, apart from Canada's Much Music).

We still get the occasional big, lavish video (Taylor Swift, I'm looking at you), but the economic imperative to produce a decent video isn't the same as it once was. In the UK, you'd see videos on music shows like Top of the Pops and the Chart Show or on whatever the BBC's Saturday morning yoof show was at the time (Going Live, Live & Kicking, etc), but those shows have all dried up.

Very occasionallya video breaks out into the wider consciousness and then gets covered on shows like Ellen or Live with Kelly. The only I can really think of like this in recent years is Chandelier by Sia.

In the UK, you'd see videos on music shows like Top of the Pops and the Chart Show or on whatever the BBC's Saturday morning yoof show was at the time (Going Live, Live & Kicking, etc), but those shows have all dried up.

Robbie,i find that i can discover a fair bit on Youtube,yes initially it`s by searching for specific bands,but the suggestions it throws up in the right hand panel often lead you to undiscovered or long forgotten stuff!Regarding The Chart Show,i loved how they did specific chart run downs each week,for instance the `Rock` chart.Then there was the early hours of Saturday morning shows like The Power Hour and Raw Power,both rock/metal shows!

Headbanger's Ball I watched pretty regularly when Adam Curry and later Riki Rachtman were the hosts. They tried to do a new version of the show (with no host, if I remember right) on MTV Classic, but it stunk.

Portlandia had a pretty hilarious (by their standards) bit about a guy getting a TV for the first time in years and being outraged that MTV no longer showed videos. He gets old MTV personalities to storm the offices of the head of MTV, which turns out to be a 9 year old girl.

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